In mice, a circuit between the spinal cord and various regions of the brain, centring on spinal-cord-projecting neurons in the rostral ventromedial medulla, has a key role in driving chronic pain.

Chronic pain exhibits circadian rhythms in humans, but the mechanisms underlying such rhythmicity remain unclear. Here, we found daily oscillations in the nociceptive thresholds in a mouse model of ne...

Chronic pain remains a major global health issue, and many patients don’t respond well to standard treatments. In our new review Damien Boorman Lewis Crawford Zahra Siddiqi Loren Martin Luke Henderson...

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is strongly linked to neuroinflammation, with immune activation in brain regions such as the amygdala and hippoc…

Chronic stress is a major risk factor for several psychiatric disorders, including major depressive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder. This review synthesizes rodent-based findings showing th...

“Genuinely Hard Problems” pilots novel approach to scientific education.

The identification of somatotopy in brainstem pain modulatory pathways could help treat chronic pain

The lateral periaqueductal gray (lPAG) evokes somatotopically appropriate defensive behaviors, including an analgesia that allows the animal to escape or fight unimpeded. Whether the lPAG and its desc...

Background The brain is capable of powerfully inhibiting perceived pain intensity. Experimentally, three pain modulating phenomena have been well explored: placebo analgesia (PA), offset analgesia (...

Baumbach et al. use a pain-priming model to show that a history of injury amplifies predator-odor (TMT)-evoked fear and mechanical hypersensitivity that lasts for over 6 months. These responses depend...

Exposure to infection during early life can lead to lasting neurodevelopmental changes. Animal models of maternal immune activation (MIA) typically as…

Liu et al. reveal distinct subcortical pathways from the superior colliculus to the amygdala and insula cortical pathways that govern two visual escape behaviors in two groups of mice, offering new in...

There remains a substantial unmet need for effective and safe treatments for neuropathic pain. The Neuropathic Pain Special Interest Group aimed to up…

Communications Biology - A novel framework for cross-species analysis reveals the conserved and species-specific neural circuitry underlying placebo analgesia and nocebo hyperalgesia.

Using multimodal imaging, Tohyama et al. show that individuals with migraine have white matter damage in the trigeminal nerve. This damage is associated wi

Chronic neuropathic pain is a debilitating condition that results from damage to the nervous system. Current treatments are largely ineffective, with …

Inflammation is associated with localized acidosis, however, attributing physiological and pathological roles to proton-sensitive receptors is chal...

Bite-size findings from emerging and mid-career researchers at the University of Sydney's Faculty of Medicine and Health

Li et al. identify the paraventricular hypothalamus (PVH) as a pain sorting center that distinctly processes visceral and somatic pain. PVH neural ensembles activated by visceral and somatic pain exhibit unique transcriptional profiles and projection patterns, thus providing evidence for clinically targeted treatment of visceral and somatic pain.

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Gastric pain has limited treatment options and the nociceptive ascending pathway remains largely unclear. Here, the authors identify a glutamatergic tetra-synaptic NTS–LPB–PVT–PL circuit that provides...

Scientific Reports - Lateral lamina V projection neuron axon collaterals connect sensory processing across the dorsal horn of the mouse spinal cord

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Gastric pain has limited treatment options and the nociceptive ascending pathway remains largely unclear. Here, the authors identify a glutamatergic tetra-synaptic NTS–LPB–PVT–PL circuit that provides...

The activation of autonomic and hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) systems occurs interdependently with behavioral adjustments under varying environmental demands. Nevertheless, laboratory rodent stu...